In which airlines try CyberMonday sales

As long as the news cycle is going to be talking about sales related to CyberMonday or Black Friday I suppose it only makes sense that the airlines try to get in on the action as well. Alas, the pickings are slim and, typical for airlines, the cheaper fares are unnecessarily hard to find. But a few are trying. Here are the ones which caught my eye.

Alaska Airlines

I give credit to Alaska Airlines for both the breadth ad duration of its sale. Sure, it is only officially for Tuesday and Wednesday travel, but that’s common. Added bonus: Many of the fares also seem to be available on Saturdays as well. And it is nice to see some of the sale fares available in to February even if there are black out dates for some destinations. Most notable, however, is that the sale covers scores of cities the airline flies to. There’s (theoretically) something for everyone. And purchases can be made later in the week; it is not limited to only CyberMonday date of sale.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore wins for crazy cheap fares but loses for lack of variety. That lack of variety mostly comes from the carrier having only four routes to North America and it only offering sales on those routes. But $599 all-in return from LA to Tokyo or San Francisco to Seoul is near the low end of what those markets typically offer. There are also business class deals on offer (e.g. $2699 JFK-Frankfurt) but those are less special. Weekend surcharges apply. Tickets must be booked on CyberMonday but the travel period extends through May 2016.

Air Berlin

Bonus points here for ~$500 round trip fares from the US to Europe. Ditto for extending into the summer shoulder season, especially on routes like Boston or Dallas where that’s when the flights run. But figuring out which cities have sale fares is spectacularly challenging. The option to “check out the map” doesn’t really show which are priced where. And then there are the other common things Air Berlin does, like a surcharge for booking with a credit card.

American Airlines

Want a winter trip to Europe in Business Class? American (and, by association, JV partners BA, Finnair and Iberia in some cases) is offering fares as low as $2,400 for travel between December 18th and January 11th. Tickets must be purchased on CyberMonday. The price is reasonable but, much like Air Berlin, AA isn’t sharing specifically what cities rate which fares. I found the cheap seats available on JFK-London and Atlanta-Paris so there is some variety there; poke around and you might find something, too.

United Airlines

Welcome to a hodgepodge of random routes and fares from United. I have no idea if any of these are sale rates, what travel dates are valid or if the list is exhaustive. I know that domestic fares are typically symmetrical and the list is not so I’m assuming there are more options than what is listed there. Oh, and the click-through from the listing isn’t working for me directly, though opening in an incognito/private browsing tab seems to work. I figure that’s more related to the new website than anything else. Added bonus: There are actually fares available lower than the sale prices listed, at least in some markets.

KLM

KLM is offering up a few options for travel in January, February or March 2016. Fares range from pretty decent (JFK-Dublin for $560ish) to almost certainly not really a sale (Atlanta-Munich for $1100ish). Much like the AA fares there’s a decent chance some of these might trickle over to JV partners Air France and Delta, though no guarantees.

What else?

I have no doubt that there are other “deals” out there. But, for the most part, these are sleepers to me. Especially with the way they’re making it a pain in the ass to find what they advertise. Anything catch your eye that I missed?

EK is advertising $1549 for 2 people from the USA to the Indian subcontinent on Facebook. Except they’re not doing a good job advertising that it’s for 2 because people in the comments think the price is too high (or maybe they think $775 pp is too high to India, which I think is a fair price).

Also, dates for travel don’t start til Jan 9 so it excludes the popular holiday time.